90-91 / 168
St Edward’s:
150 Years
92
93
Chapter 5 / Doorways and Gateways
Where will Physics go over the next few years? We hope
to develop the Astronomy and Electronics clubs. For Shells
our aim is to improve skills, confidence and self-reliance.
We hope the IB will continue to flourish and the EPQ
programme will become better established. The introduction
of a School-wide virtual learning environment may see an
increased use in data-logging, animations and simulations.
I hope though that if you returned in 150 years you might
still find pupils with ramps, trolleys and see the Van de Graaf
electrocuting unsuspecting pupils!
PhilipWaghorn
Head of Physics
Biology
Arguably the most important event in the study of Biology
was the publication of
On the Origin of Species
by Charles
Darwin in 1859, and when writing this piece it occurred to me
to wonder what Darwin would have made of the tour many
parents and prospective pupils make around our beautiful
Ogston Building. It seems a relevant question given that the
School was founded a mere four years after
The Origin
was
unveiled to the world.
As he arrived at the front door he would be confronted
with a mixture of the recognisable and the exotic. A sixth
edition of
The Origin
, open at the page displaying Darwin’s
visualisation of the tree of life, flanked by now famous fossils
such as Archaeopteryx and the skulls of various human
ancestors would be comfortingly familiar. However, I hope his
eyes would be drawn to the elegant double helical structure,
the immortal coil, of the DNA molecule. How quickly, I
wonder, would he grasp that the sequence of bases along the
centre of the molecule could constitute a code which specifies
how organisms are both built and run? What would his
reaction be to learning that this was the link between his own
ideas of ‘descent with modification’ and Mendel’s observations
about the laws of heredity? This in essence is the revolution
which took place in 20th-century Biology, and moved the
study of the subject to an entirely new plane.
I would hope that as he walked around, dropping into the
different labs he would be heartened to see pupils fascinated
by the study of the natural world. I imagine he would be
struck by the juxtaposition of the familiar and the new.
Microscopes and heart dissections cheek by jowl with genetic
fingerprinting, microbial culture plates and thermographic
images of the body during exercise. The dynamics of the
classroom might also seem a little strange, with pupils
often engaged in group practical or research work, and the
interactions between teacher and pupils taking the form of a
dialogue rather than a lecture.
Ultimately the small, incremental, evolutionary changes in
the approaches to the teaching and learning of Biology have
amounted to nothing less than a revolution when considered
on the timescale of 150 years. Our pupils can investigate,
research, collaborate and present in ways which would have
been almost unimaginable. I would hope that all who leave
through the doorway of our building, including my imaginary
Darwin, would feel enriched, humbled, and energised
but above all determined to continue using that greatest
of all human inventions, the scientific method, to pursue
understanding of the world around them.
Alastair Summers
Head of Biology
Those who left the School many years ago will be gratified
to know that not everything has changed. Dr Moore and Dr
Tucker are still present in the Department, providing stalwart
support and even teaching occasionally! They also remind the
Johnny-come-latelies when ‘new innovations’ in teaching have
been tried 20 years ago and what happened.
Most Teddies pupils use their Sixth Form Chemistry courses
to go off and study such traditional subjects as Engineering,
Geography, Medicine and other Biological Sciences. However,
we are also seeing a continued trickle of applications for
Chemistry at university as well. With the intellectual rigour
required to pass these courses, it is no wonder that Chemistry at
the School remains a traditional subject of the future.
Anthony Bullard
Head of Chemistry
Physics
If you visited the Physics Department following an absence
of several years you would probably find it familiar but
immediately notice some changes. We now have more
dedicated Physics laboratories. You would notice the
weather station and seismometer in the entrance picking up
earth tremors from around the world. You might notice the
refurbished labs and prep room, full of computers, to allow
pupils access to simulations and allow data-logging.
Our teaching has changed over the past few years. We
have much more emphasis on how Physics relates to the real
world. We achieve this through trips, lectures and the way we
teach. There are old, familiar experiments involving ticker-
tapes, ramps, trolleys or the Van de Graaf generator, but new
innovations with data-logging, rockets, force sensors, video
analysis and liquid nitrogen.
Starting in the Shells you would soon be on a trip to
Lulworth with the Geography Department to look at ocean
waves and diffraction. Over the year you would be involved
in the Engineering club, building circuits, straw bridges and
programming raspberry-pie computers. You might be involved
on a trip to the North Wall to examine the physics used in a
modern theatre. You would be involved in a cross-curricular
science project, perhaps looking at the Mars Rover. At the end
of the year you would have a practical exam assessing your
ability to observe, record and analyse.
In the Fourth and Fifth Form you would be studying the
international GCSE perhaps as a separate science. You could
visit Didcot power station and Westfield wind farm and solar
array, considering climate change and the ability of technology
to find solutions. An interest in Astronomy might lead you to
study GCSE Astronomy in the Astronomy Club, looking through
the new GPS telescope. Many of the most able pupils will attend
a series of talks by some of the leading scientists in the country.
The Sixth Form is an area where you might notice the
most changes from a few years ago. Over the last few years
the School has introduced IB alongside the A Level course.
In the Lower Sixth we teach a context-based course looking
at how physics is used in archaeology, sport, CD players and
food technology. A visit to Thorpe Park and a lecture on the
design of roller coasters is always a popular day out as part
of the coursework requirement. Finally in the Sixth Form you
might choose to do an extended investigation or research
project as part of the EPQ, or Extended Essay in IB. These
projects can be as diverse as Formula 1 to oil rigs, space
elevators to black holes.
As part of the Shell Circus, the Physics department
ran an Engineering option. Pupils built a circuit
board,programmedaRaspberryPiecomputer,built
amodel aircraft and designed a bridge fromstraws
which was then tested to destruction as part of a
mini-competition.ShownareFergusCameronWatt
andWill Bolam Bassett testing their bridge.
Mai Piyasombatkul carrying out ‘Protein
Fingerprinting’ in the Ogston Building.